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Today’s Topics

Today’s Topics. Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism. Jared Diamond: Why Societies Fail:. Failure to anticipate a problem Failure to perceive a problem Failure to try to solve a problem Failure to solve despite attempts. Environmental Justice. Two questions:

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Today’s Topics

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  1. Today’s Topics • Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism

  2. Jared Diamond: Why Societies Fail: • Failure to anticipate a problem • Failure to perceive a problem • Failure to try to solve a problem • Failure to solve despite attempts

  3. Environmental Justice • Two questions: • How is the burden of pollution distributed in our society (who actually bears the burden)? • How should the burden of pollution be distributed (who ought to bear the burden)?

  4. Who Bears the Burden of Pollution? • Demographic and epidemiological analysis. • Start with EPA lists of Toxic Release Points (TRP’s) and Hazardous Waste Sites (Superfund sites) • Toxic sites cluster—Louisiana (cancer alley), LA, Chicago, New Jersey, Pacific Northwest (Hanford, WA) • Most studied area is cancer alley

  5. Cancer Alley

  6. Problematic Industries Located Along Cancer Alley • Refineries • Plastic polymer industries (chlorine, benzene) • Dry-cleaning chemical manufacturers

  7. Who Bears the Burden? • After identifying site clusters: • Use GIS and Census data to identify income, racial, ethnic, and religious profile of people living in proximity to the TRP’s • Perform a multiple regression analysis to determine which factors account for proximity to TRP’s • Race is the strongest predictor—

  8. Who Bears the Burden? • Blacks, Native Americans, Hispanics and Asians are 2-3 times more likely to live near a TRP than comparable income whites. • Finally, compare health profiles of those living near TRP’s to those further away. • Respiratory ailments in Cancer Alley are 4 times the national average. • Cancer rates vary by type of cancer but in some instances (liver) are 10 times the national average.

  9. Who SHOULD Bear the Burden? • This is a normative question that is loaded with value assumptions. • The Summers memo • From an economic point of view, the poor should bear this burden. • The economic (and political)logic behind selecting Yucca Mountain

  10. Burden Distribution Principles • A question of distributive justice

  11. Distributive Justice • Act in way that promote a just* distribution of social goods.

  12. Theories of Justice Include: • Equality • Need • Contribution • Effort • Merit • Market forces

  13. Environmental Racism • The intentional targeting of people of color to bear the burden of pollution. • In Cancer Alley companies bought out white residents living in proximity to TRP’s but did not buy out similarly situated people of color. • Studies in LA and Chicago discovered intentional targeting of minority neighborhoods.

  14. Studying Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism • Deep South Center for Environmental Justice www.DSCEJ.org • Mid-South Center for Environmental Justice here at Southeast

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